Battle of Stoke Field
The Battle of Stoke Field was fought on 16 June 1487 at the end of the Wars of the Roses. The battle, fought two years after the death of King Richard III of England and the rise to power of King Henry VII of England at the Battle of Bosworth Field, saw the destruction of the last diehard Yorkists and the consolidation of the House of Tudor's rule over England. Background In 1486, following a failed uprising against the new Tudor king Henry VII, Viscount Lovell went into exile in Burgundy. While there, he came into contact with several other Yorkists, including the Calais captain Thomas David and John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln (a nephew of King Henry IV of England), and they began plotting a Yorkist revival. They found their Yorkist figurehead when an Oxford priest noticed that the scholar Lambert Simnel bore a striking resemblance to the imprisoned Edward Plantagenet, 14th Earl of Warwick, a Yorkist claimant whom King Henry VII had imprisoned. Lambert Simnel was claimed to be the real Warwick, and Margaret of York funded the creation of a mercenary army and fleet to help the diehard Yorkists sail to Ireland and prepare for the restoration of the House of York. The 2,000 mercenaries were battle-hardened Germans under the command of the veteran warrior Martin Schwartz. Upon the arrival of Lovell and Lincoln in Ireland on 24 May 1487, the false Warwick was crowned as "Edward VI" in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. The Irish lords supported the pretender king without hesitation, and other dissatisfied Yorkists from as far away as Jersey and Cornwall flocked to Ireland to join the restoration. Kign Henry moved his base to the western city of Coventry, aware that an invasion was now imminent, and he prepared warning beacons and had his loyal nobles assemble at Kenilworth Castle. On 2 June, the rebels landed at Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, and they formally declared for Edward VI and encamped at Swathmore, where they received reinforcements; while marching through Yorkshire, the anti-Tudor Harrington and Middleton families further reinforced them. The people of York decided to remain loyal to the generous King Henry rather than let the rebels into the city, and, on 11 June, the rebels won a minor victory over the Lancastrians near Leeds. The rebels then marched south on the Nottinghamshire town of Newark, and King Henry became aware of the rapid rebel advance and arrived at Nottingham on 14 June. The rebels then marched south via Castleford towards Rotherham, reaching Southwell by 14 June. On 15 June, the two forces finally neared one another at the village of East Stoke. Battle The rebel army encamped at East Stoke consisted of 8,000 men-at-arms, primarily consisting of farmers and other common folk, as well as 2,000 German mercenaries and a small Irish contingent. When Henry's men left camp that morning, they marched in battle formation, with John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford leading the vanguard. Aware that a retreat would mean a devastating blow to morale and that standing his ground would be a risk, Oxford warned the King (who was several miles behind) and then led an attack on the 10,000 rebels with just 6,000 men. At 9:00 AM, the two sides began an arrow exchange, and the rebels initially suffered heavy losses. As the rebels reached the base of the rebel-held hill, the largely-unarmored Irish contingent charged downhill. The rebels then committed the entire army to the downhill charge, driving the Lancastrians back and nearly routing them. However, King Henry's force arrived and fed fresh troops into the Royalist line. The rebels were then pushed back up the hill, and the rebel line eventually broke and their army routed. As the rebels fled, the majority attempted to escape along a ravine of the River Trent, but hundreds were cornered and slain, causing the floor of the ravine to run red with blood and become known as the "Red Gutter". Lambert Simnel was captured by a squire and spared, his allies destroyed. Aftermath Stoke was the final battle of the Wars of the Roses, and the Tudors would go on to rule England for over a century afterward. All of the leading Yorkists were killed, while Simnel was put to work in the royal kitchen before becoming a falconer. The Irish nobles were spared but then excommunicated. King Henry made 52 new knights after the battle, rewarding his supporters for their loyalty. It was not until the impostor Perkin Warbeck's uprising in 1499 that Henry VII's rule would face another notable uprising, and Warbeck's revolt was quelled without the need for a major battle. Category:Wars of the Roses Category:Battles